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SPORTS OF THE TIMES; WELLINGTON MARA LOOKS BACK

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The Giants and the Bears - the nicknames alone symbolize their storied stature as the two cornerstone teams of the National Football League's formative years. Over the N.F.L.'s first four decades, the Giants and the Bears played for the championship six times, with the Giants winning three. And on Sunday, in the Super Bowl XX divisional playoffs, the Giants and the Bears will be opponents in a post-season game for the first time since the 1963 title game in 10-degree cold at Wrigley Field.

The Giants and the Bears - better than anyone else, Wellington Mara remembers those six title games when George Halas was the Papa Bear.

''The Giants and the Bears,'' the Giants' president was saying now at his desk. ''Halas would have to be beaming at this Bears' team. It's his kind of his team and Mike Ditka is his kind of coach. Halas hired Mike about a year before he died. I've been asked what my father Tim and Halas would be saying about this game, but they might not be talking - a lot of times they weren't always speaking to each other. We had more bitter arguments with the Halas family, but we always came around.''

As one of the N.F.L.'s founders in 1921, George Halas realized the necessity of a New York franchise, which Tim Mara purchased in 1925 for $2,500. Two years later, the Giants beat the Bears, 13-7, at the Polo Grounds for the championship.

''The Giants and the Bears,'' Wellington Mara said. ''In that '63 game at Wrigley Field, we went ahead, 10-7, and Del Shofner had a pass go off his fingers in the end zone. But then Larry Morris rolled into Y. A. Tittle's knee. In the second half, Y. A. insisted on playing, but he couldn't really plant to throw.'' Without a strong Tittle, the Giants stalled. ''Ed O'Bradovich intercepted another pass to set up a touchdown,'' Mara recalled. ''That was it, 14-10.'' Adorning the wall behind Wellington Mara's desk were framed team photos of all the Giants' divisional champions, beginning with the 1933 team that lost the title game at Wrigley Field, 23-21, on Bronko Nagurski's two touchdown passes.

''Steve Owen had a trick play for that game,'' he said, referring to the Giants' longtime coach. ''We lined up with only one man to the left of Mel Hein, our center. Then that one man shifted into the backfield, which made Hein an eligible receiver. Our quarterback, Harry Newman, called the snap, but left the ball in Mel's grasp. Mel was supposed to stand there with the ball, then walk with it until he was clear, then run. It worked until he was just about to run with it. One of the Bears did a double-take and tackled him.''

At the Polo Grounds in 1934, the

Giants won the N.F.L. title in what is known as the ''sneakers'' game.

''The field was frozen,'' Wellington Mara recalled. ''Ray Flaherty, our captain and assistant coach, had played out at Gonzaga where they once used sneakers on a frozen field. He told Steve Owen about it, then Steve and my brother Jack tried to call A. G. Spalding's and Alex Taylor's, the two biggest sporting-goods stores in New York at the time. But they were closed on Sunday.

''Steve had a friend, Abe Cohen, a tailor, who helped out on our sideline at games. And when Chick Meehan was the N.Y.U. basketball coach, he had Abe make the first satin basketball shorts. Then when Chick went to Manhattan as coach, Abe went with him. Abe had the keys to the Manhattan gym, so he went up in a taxi and got 10 or 12 of the biggest pairs of sneakers for our players.''

Soon after the game began, the Bear players told Coach George Halas that the Giants were wearing sneakers.

''Halas told them, 'Step on their toes,' '' Wellington Mara said, laughing. ''If they did, it didn't do them any good.''

The Giants won, 30-13, but in 1941, two weeks after Pearl Harbor, the Bears routed the Giants, 37-9, for the title.

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''The Bears still had the great team that had clobbered the Redskins, 73-0, the year before and we went into that game pretty beat up. Mel Hein, who hardly ever got hurt, wore a mask to protect a broken nose.''

In 1946, the Bears won, 24-14, after Frank Filchock, the Giants' tailback, was cleared to play by Commissioner Bert Bell following an investigation into reports of a bribe offer.

''The morning before the game, my father got a call from Mayor O'Dwyer to come to Gracie Mansion. When he got there, he learned that gamblers had tried to get to Filchock through Merle Hapes, another one of our backs. The Mayor took Filchock aside and talked to him for half an hour, then the Mayor told Bert Bell, 'Let this man play tomorrow, he's as clean as a hound's tooth.' Filchock threw two touchdown passes but Sid Luckman had a big game for the Bears, scoring on a 19-yard bootleg to his right.'' Filchock and Hapes were given suspensions by Bell for failing to report a bribe attempt but were later reinstated.

Ten years later, in their first season at Yankee Stadium, the Giants won their last N.F.L. title, 47-7, over the Bears.

''Gene Filipski ran back the opening kickoff deep into Bears' territory,'' Wellington Mara recalled. ''That got us going, then Charlie Conerly had a big game. But the day before, Bert Bell met with Halas and Jim Lee Howell and the officials. The week before, Ed Meadows of the Bears had roughed up the Lions' quarterbacks, especially Bobby Layne, and Bert wanted to make sure nothing like that happened in the championship game.

''That year Don Heinrich was our starting quarterback, then Jim Lee would put Charlie Conerly in. And when Bert started talking about roughing up the quarterback, Halas said, 'Well, you know, some quarterbacks are so clever at handling the ball, it's hard to know if they've got the ball or not, like Heinrich.' But before Halas could finish, Jim Lee, who never swore, said, 'That's a bunch of stuff, George, and you know it.' ''

With a smile, Wellington Mara recalled another fond memory of George Halas reacting to a punt bouncing out of bounds near the Bear bench.

''The official put his cap down to mark where the ball went out of bounds,'' the Giants' president said. ''But when the official ran to retrieve the ball, Halas moved the cap a foot or two in the Bears' favor. Not enough to make any difference. But he had to move it just to correct the official. Halas was an inveterate critic of the officials.''

The Giants and the Bears - now their original owners, Tim Mara and George Halas, each are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame at Canton, Ohio.

''I remember when the Hall of Fame was being organized,'' Wellington Mara said with a laugh. ''We were talking about how eligibility for the Hall of Fame would include owners, players, coaches and officials and the Hall of Fame's first curator, Dick McCann, said, 'Halas can make it on all four counts.' ''

A version of this interview appears in print on December 31, 1985, on Page A00009 of the National edition with the headline: SPORTS OF THE TIMES; WELLINGTON MARA LOOKS BACK. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe